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The Koch Brothers' dirty attack on clean energy

ALEC's Electricity Freedom Act model bill was written by the Heartland Institute, a shill group made infamous for comparing those who recognize climate science to terrorists like Ted Kaczynski. Todd Wynn, a corporate influence peddler who heads ALEC's Energy, Environment and Agriculture task force, named North Carolina as one of several states ALEC will focus its clean energy attacks

I sincerely hope this bad idea gets stopped in its tracks. But if it doesn't, everybody needs to remember the original (bad) deal: in order to get SB3 passed, utilities were allowed to reinstate the previously disallowed process known as Construction Work In Progress (CWIP). If SB3 goes, CWIP needs to go too.

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If you think there was a stink raised over your two-faced merger tactics, that was nothing compared to what will happen if you continue to play both sides of this issue:

This is where ALEC makes things awkward for Duke Energy: The law that Rep. Mike Hager is targeting (2007 SB3) was created with input from Duke Energy, and Duke explicitly opposes ALEC's "Electricity Freedom Act," the model law to repeal state Renewable Energy Portfolio Standards (REPS). Duke Energy re-asserted its support for North Carolina's REPS law to the Charlotte Business Journal last April and Progress Energy publicly supported the law before merging with Duke.

Apparently, Duke forgot about supporting North Carolina's clean energy incentives somewhere along the way. Duke Energy remains a paying member of the American Legislative Exchange Council.

If, as I have a sneaking hunch, Duke Energy's main goal in this whole enterprise was to get CWIP reinstated, we need to make sure CWIP remains tied to the REPS. It's still a bad deal, but it's better than losing the latter and keeping the former.

Duke Energy paid Pat McCrory to run for governor for more than a decade. They came pretty close to getting what they wanted, with McCrory now serving as Deputy Assistant Governor to Art Pope. Duke can expect a free pass to pull all manner of shenanigans, none of which will be good for anyone except shareholders and bought-off legislators.

There's only one response that makes any sense. Sue them every time they move.

Holding out hope for sanity in Raleigh is a fool's errand. Progressive non-profit organizations that spend time lobbying are wasting the money their donor's have given them. Those funds should be redirected to fund the most creative lawyers money can buy.

Well, obviously ALEC is going to go after any and all clean energy initiatives in our state because it has a vast potential for megabucks derived from hydraulic fracturing efforts. What better way to bolster your fracking initiatives then to destroy the alternatives to it.

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